By Ed Killer
PORT SALERNO —It felt like old times for the crew fishing aboard the Lo Que Sea. On the final day of the two-day Fish Heads Sailfish Invitational, Capt. Kevin Paul, Tony Huerta, Glenn Cameron and Austin Robbins teamed up to catch and release seven sailfish on the day to give the team 13 overall and win the first-year event. Lo Que Sea battled stern-to-stern at times with day-one leader Showtime! in an area about 12 miles offshore of the Fort Pierce Inlet. On the tournament’s opening day, Showtime! caught a fleet-best eight sailfish as the fleet of 14 boats entered in the tournament combined to catch 52. A total of 37 fish were caught and released on day two for a tournament total of 89. By noon on the last day, Lo Que Sea had added four sailfish releases to leap-frog Fa-La-Me in the standings. Showtime! with Capt. Wink Doerzbacher, owner Fred Hardwick, of Sailfish Point, anglers Mark Schwartz and Tom Floyd, and mates Jon Meade and Carl Copeland, caught two fish by midday. Both boats had 10 sailfish releases, but since ties are broken based on the time of the last release, Showtime! held the narrow edge. But Lo Que Sea would find its 11th sailfish at about 1:30 p.m. and take the lead. Showtime! answered an hour later to draw even. But with less than 30 minutes left to fish, Lo Que Sea scored a double-header — the team’s only one of the day — to secure the lead for good. “It’s great when a plan comes together,” Paul said. “But those two sailfish at the end were the icing on the cake.” Paul said he also enjoyed being able to fish again with his longtime mentor, Capt. Glenn Cameron. Cameron, one of the area’s winningest tournament skippers, was an angler during the tournament. For many years, Cameron won tournaments with Paul, known as “K.P.” to sailfishers, as his first mate. Huerta said it was a lot of fun fishing alongside teammates with whom he has enjoyed tournament success. “The weather was beautiful, we had better fishing than we’ve had recently and we got a little lucky, but we sure had a good time,” said Huerta, of Orlando, who has won area events with both Paul and Cameron at the helm. “I’m glad the fish were here,” said Cameron, who now has won the local tournament season’s opening event six times out of the nine he has entered. “We paid the price in November and had to put up with horrible weather, but that’s what brings the fish to us.” Teams fishing aboard Vintage led by boat owner and Capt. Hans Kraaz, of Fort Pierce, and Outlaw led by boat owner and Capt. Neil Subin, of Sewall’s Point, each had five releases Tuesday. Outlaw lost a portion of its fishing day after it had to replace a starter in one of the engines before leaving the dock, but it wound up in third place overall with 10 sailfish.